Laura

hands of steel

2009-07-01T03:14:31Z

Taste of Chicago has been going on since June 26, and for people not from Chicago this means free music in Grant park and lots of different restaurants with stands selling food for you to try. In the past few nights I have seen the Counting Crows and The Wallflowers in concert. Tonight was the Bare Naked Ladies, though I was not there for the whole concert: I made it to the park in the middle of their set since I got there as fast as I could after work.
I noticed that they were playing One Week slower than normal, to which my first response was "Aww, they're getting old"

Oh no my friend.

It is at this point that they start vamping and talking to a lady off the jumbotron screen, and when the camera pans to that side it turns out that the whole concert was being SIGNED and they were teasing her and seeing if she needed a break from all the words...

Well done to her for managing to keep up with all those lyrics. My hands just hurt thinking about it.

One step closer to crazy cat lady

2009-01-14T02:25:19Z

My two year old cat Chloe has always been curious and more often than I would like has made a break for the outside when I open the front door. At my parents house she can get her fill by hanging out on the screened in porch, but the best that I can do here is to leave the blinds up so she can sit in the windowsill. So for Christmas I bought her a little cat harness and leash so that I can let her wander wherever she wants outside while I walk with her and keep her from becoming road kill or dog food. We tried it out last night, to interesting results. Chloe wanted to go out, so I put her in the harness (she squirmed a lot at the beginning and then resigned to me slipping it on her), had to re-catch her to clip on the leash, and then outside we went. She proceeded to walk backwards trying to get out of the harness. Obviously it doesn't work that way, so she was mostly wriggling to no effect. I could not lead her anywhere with the leash, and she didn't leave the landing outside my door but slunk from doorway to doorway.

While watching my cat be ridiculous I hear from behind me "Holy shit! Are you walking a cat?!?!" and there is a guy on the apartment staircase just staring at the two of us as Chloe poofs up. I explained, and he goes on his way to tell his friends, I am sure, of the crazy cat lady who lives on the first floor.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T18:41:43Z

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

LINUS: "Sure Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about."

Linus walks to center stage, dragging his blanket.

LINUS: "Lights, please?"

Auditorium lights dim and a spot shines on Linus.

LINUS: "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shown round about them. And they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men."

Picks up blanket and exits stage left. Approaches Charlie Brown

LINUS: "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

50 Weeks ago apparently

2008-12-13T16:51:22Z

Current Life in Brief List form since not posting for a year would mean A LOT of writing to catch up.

- One more semester left to go to get my MFA in Technical Production from UNC Chapel Hill.
- My Thesis is to be the Technical Director for PlayMakers Repertory Company's production of Pride and Prejudice (the Jon Jory version of the play). The play runs from April 1 -April 19. Everyone should come see my work.
- Applied for a job with Schuler Shook in Chicago and the Alley Theatre in Houston. More applications planned for the future.
- My entry was accepted into the Theatre Technology Exhibition (Tech Expo) at this years USITT Conference.
- Worked out at the Utah Shakespearean Festival again this past summer, this time as a Master Carpenter on The School for Wives in the Randall Theatre.
- My cat Chloe turned 2 in September. She and I have a place to ourselves.
- I had my nose pierced Nov. 18 for no deeper reason than I wanted something different
- I am single again.

Almost foiled by the internet

2007-12-25T19:53:07Z

Recent Things

2007-11-18T02:34:58Z

On Thursday I donated bone marrow and I have been slowly regaining my energy since. I put myself onto the registry when I was in undergrad and I got called up this September saying that I am a match for a 56 year old gentleman with early stages of Leukemia. That is all the information that I am allowed to know, but if all goes well in a years time people are allowed to contact each other. It took many steps (interviews, paperwork, blood tests and a physical) before I could actually donate. There are two ways that bone marrow can be collected and the patient's doctor picks which way is best for the patient's situation. One is a surgical procedure where bone marrow samples are taken out of the pelvic bone and another is a process by which you take a drug increasing the body's stem cell production and all the extra stem cells are filtered out of the blood by a machine. This second process, called PBSC - Peripheral blood stem cell donation is what I did. More specific information can be found on the National Marrow Donor Program website

I started Sunday and I drove to duke every morning to get a shot at 8 am. Because my body didn't know what to do with all these extra cells that it produced I am experienced the aches and pains of an extremely bad flu to the point that I was put on oxycodone on the fourth day of shots to deal with my exploding head and intense back pain. I went home Tuesday after my first morning class because sitting became painful and I spent the rest of the days taking naps or lounging. Chloe (my cat) has been a very good companion and has curled up with me when she is not pouncing on my feet that are under the comforter. My dad came down Wednesday night because you need to bring someone with you for the process. I spent 6 hours hooked up to the machine with blood coming out my right arm and going back into my left. All the nurses were really nice and since my process was happening in a main room area people coming through would say hello. I felt weird with everyone making a fuss over me and telling me what a great thing I was doing. It's not that I don't think it's important, because I do, but I don't feel like I did anything out of the ordinary. My body did the important thing of being a match without me having any influence. I took naps, ate lunch and watched Miss Potter on DVD all while being filtered. Fortunately you do get unhooked to go to the bathroom. Dad found the process interesting and was looking at all the parts of the machine and watching my blood get spun into different parts.

Yesterday I was amazingly tired, with eating being taxing on what little energy I had. Today has been much better and while I am still tired I have been able to start in on all the homework that I didn't do this past week. All my instructors have been very understanding of the whole process, and no one expects me to have turned in everything on time, but I still have to get it done. And there is a lot.

Paving the way to crazy cat lady

2007-09-02T02:46:40Z

I am now the mom of a beautiful 1 year old named Chloe.

Night Shift

2007-06-11T02:57:31Z

Yes, I know that I never post, and yes I know that there are people who have been bugging me about it and want to know more about Utah things. However when life is mostly filled with work I spend my free time doing cool things like hiking and going to hear bands and hanging out with people by the grill instead of writing here.

In other news starting tonight I will be working from Midnight to 10 am Mon-Fri for potentially the rest of my contract. I will not be held responsible for what my reaction may be if you call me during normal day hours when I am sleeping.

I love my new Camelbak

2007-05-14T03:11:05Z

Hiking in Kolob Canyon today was AWESOME.

We took the Taylor Creek Trail and went as far as Stevie could for one day. Perhaps by the end of the summer we will make it to the arches. There were lots of lizards, and a snake warning from people coming down the trail, though we did not see the snake. Nor did I have to use my newly acquired knowledge that if meeting a mountain lion you stand really tall with your arms in the air and try to look threatening - Running away is bad.

So much fun, so much cool nature. Would rather be hiking than working, but there is always next Sunday.

Why are there longhorns on everything?

2007-05-02T04:52:46Z

It appears that my computer, after two days, has decided to play nicely with the surrounding unprotected wireless networks. I can sit on the balcony and get Best Western's and starting this afternoon I can get one in my room that previously I could not connect to. Which works out well because today I finished my paper and e-mail it to my professor. Presuming that she can open it and all that good stuff I am now done with the semester. And I still have one more day before I start work so I can wander around tomorrow and just do whatever I want.

So since I am here in Cedar City, an area teeming with Mormons I decided that I needed to remedy my ignorance concerning the religion. All I really knew coming in was that a friend of mine in elementary school couldn't come to our dance-a-thons at church cause they were in our church space. Upon getting here I had been told that they did not imbibe alcohol (which makes sense why wine is at the state liquor store, but then why is beer still in supermarkets? why isn't all alcohol locked up?) or watch R rated movies.

Conveniently enough PBS has started doing a special on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. My mom even called me yesterday to tell me about it as I had mentioned to her earlier that I knew nothing about Mormons. Now anyone who knows me well knows that I find studying religions interesting and I filled my history requirements in school with religion classes. So while my roommates were making origami things out of the tissue paper our dollar store purchases were wrapped in I was sitting in here reading the Articles of Faith and the frequently asked questions. I also started going on a virtual tour of temples, and the Baptistries are amazing - though they all have longhorn cattle around the font, hence my subject line.

While there are many things that I wouldn't be able to believe, there is one thing that I am having a hard time with. The 11th Article of faith states: 11 We claim the aprivilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

Let them worship how, where, or what they may How does this reconcile itself with the whole missionary aspect of the religion?

Utah

2007-04-30T16:42:54Z

I am now in Cedar City, UT. We arrived Saturday afternoon and I have been settling in and figuring out where things are. We do not have internet at the apartment right now, so until we figure out what those options are my only internet access is the library.

The drive cross country was awesome, including such fun things as wind farms, the painted desert, tall mountains and really really flat areas that made the sky seem huge. Our second stop was in Albuquerque, NM where our hotel was in walking distance of historic old town. Everything was beautiful and cute in a "ok, we know that you are being a little touristy but it's ok" kind of way and we had the most fabulous Mexican dinner. It managed to be both amazingly hot and exceedingly full of flavor all at the same time.

I don't start work here until Thursday, but in the mean time I have to finish my Period Styles paper and e-mail it. I wish that I had gotten everything done before I left, but realistically I would not have gotten everything done. As it was I only was able to start packing 4 hours before we headed out, and I didn't really sleep so I did not drive first shift.

The roads here are huge. Apparently when the town was first founded a requirement was that a full team of oxen pulling a cart had to be able to make a U turn. It messes with my judging of being able to make it across the street - further to walk. The mountains are right there on the east. They are so big and prominant they look fake - I'm still getting used to it. It's also weird/neat to see snow way up on the mountains and be in shorts and a Tshirt down here. I also wasn't expecting to notice that this is a predominantly Mormon area. I mean, I know that there are many that live here, but it's not like anyone wears a badge saying "hello this is my religion." Well, I had kind of forgotten that typically Mormon families are huge, but I was reminded as I tried to grocery shop on Sunday and again later when hanging out at the park. So many kids running around and screaming and picking on eachother and mothers yelling - living here is the best form of birth control ever.

On the road again

2007-04-27T02:13:08Z

Currently in Little Rock Arkansas. Highlight of the day was seeing my first armadillo roadkill.

My shattered Home Town

2007-04-17T15:43:42Z

Thank you to everyone that called yesterday asking after my family. Physically my father is fine, emotionally is another matter. Dad works two buildings down and well, the world between chemistry and engineering is small so I am sure he knew people. The hardest part about yesterday, once I got a hold of people, was listening to my parents being a wreck.

To no fault of any one person I have hit the point of media overload and am tired of talking about yesterday. I found out at lunch yesterday walking by the offices and hearing "You better tell Laura." Luckily work wise yesterday was a light day and no one cared that I was answering my phone every ten minutes as another person heard the news and either was calling to see if my family was ok or to find out if I had heard from certain people yet.

To add to the chaos Chapel Hill had massive wind yesterday - trees down, power lines strewn everywhere and because of this I have not had any power since 10 am yesterday. Took a shower at the theatre this morning, paper still isn't written cause, well, you try writing a paper in the dark. I crashed a friend's apartment last night, so I was nice and warm and I worked at their kitchen table for as long as I could stay awake, but yea, Monday was just fucked up everywhere.

Public Service Announcement

2007-03-28T15:10:40Z

Oh, and to all my friends in the midwest/west:

Unfortunately I cannot stop to see anyone as I drive out to Utah. We just have enough time to get there for when contracts start. If any of you would like to come visit me, crash my place and see a show that would be awesome, but as much as I would like to I cannot come see you.

Lookie, no class

2007-03-28T15:07:18Z

There used to be a time when I could pull redunculous hours, soup myself up on caffeine and do it all again the next day for weeks at a time. Now I am lucky if I can do it for one day. I'm so old. And by old I mean 25. sigh.
Unfortunately though the current choices are "Save money and be healthier by cutting back on coffee" or "get my shit done." Really I need the two to coincide.... Had a Lighting Design "Party" Monday night. Brought back memories of late night drafting at PBK. Made for an interesting day yesterday as I was running on less than 4 consecutive hours of sleep. Good thing yesterday was just all about moving heavy pieces of scenery and not about thinking.

I am at that "how the hell is everything going to get done" stage. But it will, because it has to. It always does. The big list of doom is posted over my desk at home. I'd post a countdown here, but it's just too damn depressing. It's also the kind of list that is really hard to write in a way that allows for satisfactory crossing off options. ALD on The Illusion cannot get crossed off until the show opens for example. I'm the kind of person who writes things onto lists just to cross them off.

Finally finished grading all the papers for Perspectives in Western Drama. Hopefully there won't be too many grade rebuttals because, well, I'm that TA. If you don't deserve a good grade, I'm not giving it to you. We're not doing students any favor by making them believe they are doing well when they are not. If I rip your paper to shreds now, perhaps you won't make the same mistakes next time. Fun tidbits from the grading experience: "Queen Victoria had a great influence on the Victorian Era." And apparently Sophocles drives a Hummer. Who knew.

Typing on Eric's computer because all of my homework that needs doing requires more smartness and/or space than I have right now. Periods of Style keeps getting canceled because my professor is not doing well so I sometimes randomly find myself with a free hour on Monday or Wednesday. I'd take a nap, but that would be futile due to my recent coffee intake.

My one and only other classmate, Kyle, has started making time lapse videos of every day of load-in in addition to the ones he already did for strikes. So eventually we will get to see all of The Bluest Eye come down and then The Illusion go up. He did one for Stones in His Pockets as well. I randomly wore a bright yellow shirt to both strikes (I'm the smaller person in yellow) Best tool possible to show people what we do.

Weather has been absolutely gorgeous. I just want to frolic outside instead of doing anything. VA Beach has been calling my name. This happened a lot last year when I was trying to pack. It's a good thing I live too far away now, otherwise I really won't get anything done.

My dart board stinks at picking brackets. It loses big time. Granted my Heels let me down too. I suppose if they had to lose, losing to Amy's team is acceptable.

You'd think I was dead or something

2007-03-14T15:50:10Z

As the end of the year progresses, particularly in the "I am leaving earlier than the last day of classes and exams" kind of way I am spending all of my time on getting my work done early. I have no life but it will all be worth it as I am driving cross country to Utah.

I'm still alive, I just can't write about it often. Shouldn't be writing now, but I have a few minutes before going to work.

Points of interest:

It's spring break, which just means I have mornings to myself to do my work and still have to go in in the afternoon.

The Bluest Eye is currently running. It's a good show in an exceedingly disturbing and depressing sort of way. Three cheers for Toni Morrison.

Everyone should come see The Illusion It's going to be damn cool with raining onstage, sneaky automated doors, this huge automated clock thing, maybe lighting some water on fire, maybe not (working on the safety logistics of that one) ...oh, and I'm sure the story is good too. AND I am assisting this fine gentleman on the lighting design. Definitely going to go out with a bang for the last show.

Filled out my basketball brackets as any good UNC person should. Well, it's all my roommate's fault really. I have never taken any sort of interest before, and I don't watch hoops enough to know anything (because really, this season has been kind of sporadic concerning whom has been beating whom) so we decided that the way for me to pick my brackets was to put names up on the dart board and shoot at them. Not kidding. We had to do a little tweaking to make the match-ups work out, but all in all it's not that bad of a bracket. We shall see if my dart board is smarter than people.

Working on grading 90 six page Drama papers. In general better than last semester's papers, and this time I actually have the freedom to kill a student on bad grammar, poorly constructed sentences and ineffective organization. I find that I enjoy editing papers, but I hate assigning them a grade value, particularly since all the writing prompts are so very different.

Weather is way too night for March. This is not helping the spring fever.....

euphistic19 @ 2007-03-08T23:07:00

2007-03-09T04:08:01Z

I'd have to say that there are chunks of this test that are just, well, a bit off. I love the socioeconomic section though.

The Everything Test

There are many different types of tests on the internet today. Personality tests, purity tests, stereotype tests, political tests. But now, there is one test to rule them all.

Traditionally, online tests would ask certain questions about your musical tastes or clothing for a stereotype, your experiences for a purity test, or deep questions for a personality test.We're turning that upside down - all the questions affect all the results, and we've got some innovative results too! Enjoy :-)

Personality

You are more logical than emotional, more concerned about others than concerned about self, more religious than atheist, more loner than dependent, more lazy than workaholic, more traditional than rebel, more artistic mind than engineering mind, more idealist than cynical, more leader than follower, and more extroverted than introverted.

As for specific personality traits, you are intellectual (93%), romantic (86%), artistic (76%), religious (60%).

Stereotypes
Old Geezer	100%
Young Professional	88%
Hippie	78%

Life Experience
Sex	27%
Substances	8%
Travel	32%

Politics
Your political views would best be described as Socialist, whom you agree with around 56% of the time.

Socioeconomic
Your attitude toward life best associates you with Upper Class. You make more than 0% of those who have taken this test, and 77% less than the U.S. average.

If your life was a movie, it would be rated PG.
By the way, your hottness rank is 64%, hotter than 90% of other test takers.

TAKE THE TEST
brought to you by thatsurveysite

Land of Mormons here I come

2007-02-10T04:01:41Z

I am going to be working for the Utah Shakespearean Festival this summer. May 2-July 5 (negotiable depending on how much traveling time they will let me have to get to PA) I will be in Cedar City, UT. I am so excited and still bouncing around on the ego boost.

Apparently I look like I am attached...

2007-01-26T02:47:57Z

Today a CPA came in to field any questions we had about all the finer nuances of filing taxes with the theatre lifestyle (I think the largest number of states that any one of us has to file in is four, and then there is the fun of W2s vs. 1099s)

Eric was sitting next to me at a table and earlier in the session he asked questions concerning himself vs. his wife and such. Later his phone rang and he had to leave the room. During the time Eric was out talking on his phone more married questions came up and the CPA was referring back to one of Eric's questions at which point she looked over to where he had been sitting and then asked me "Are you his wife?"

Everyone in the room lost it, and I explained no I was not, and no I was not offended that she asked (because she suddenly got really nervous when everyone burst out laughing that she had just offended me.

When I told Eric later he got quite the laugh out of it as well and for the rest of the day people proceeded to refer to me as Eric's wife.

First sciencejerk 's fake fiance and now Eric's fake wife. Now all I need is for someone to mistake me for a mom....

What is this free time? I don't understand that word

2007-01-25T02:11:53Z

It would appear that this semester is going to be easier than last semester for a while. It will probably change later with projects and such, but right now I am finding myself with all this free time I don't know what to do with. Been watching a bit more TV - I'm all about the original CSI. There has been some reading for fun as well. It's a shame that I literally cannot afford to do any sort of travel because all I am going to have this weekend is reading and structures homework. Granted structures always takes longer than it should, but compared to last semester when every other waking moment was spent on hand drafting this feels like vacation. If I knew anyone around here who was a hiker this would be the perfect opportunity to become one with nature. Unfortunately I know nothing about the surrounding area, nor am I a fan of just heading out on my own in a random direction.

Perspective students are starting to come interview. Which means eating lunch out to wine and dine them and ask and receive questions without the powers that be listening in. As essentially all my allotted fun spending money for going out will be spent so I can interview these people remind me later that it was worth it. I have been realizing that one advantage of the sucky hours that I pulled at my last job is that you end up saving money due to lack of time to spend it. Don't get me wrong, I will take having a life over those hours any day, but it's not been too fun reading up on personal finance and working on a budget and such so that I can keep away from all balances of the negative variety on this little stipend/salary of mine.

The life of a poor artist is a cool one though. Spent this afternoon welding. I'm excited because it's the first thing that I have been working on start to finish welding wise that will be used in a set. My wine rack is cool and all, but as it was for me I could just accept any imperfections. There is something more satisfying about creating an item to be used elsewhere. It's also been a nice change to not have to incorporate an undergrad into my project. The only welding undergrads are the ones that took our class - i.e. 1. Therefore I get nice alone time as I try to figure out what the heck the drawing says.

I have gone back into a comfortable not freaking out about getting employed or figuring out living situations for next year. What will be will be. I'm starting to get that itch to travel again too, which is bad - see aforementioned lack of funds. It's all your fault Charlie. I want to go galavanting around mountains too.

Apparently I need to be engaged to watch TV

2007-01-16T17:35:49Z

I am currently home sick because my stomach and the rest of me are in disagreement. It's been a while since I have been sick on the couch watching TV in the morning during a weekday and boy are the shows not tailored for the single woman. There are wedding shows, and baby shows and travel shows for romantic get-aways. And then there are the shows to tell me how I need to change - so the exercise ones and the fashion ones. Heck, it was even the wedding episode on Walker Texas Ranger. SO really that leaves me with either the news or infomercials for that snazzy new cooker that doesn't need you to thaw your meat first. Sigh. Then add to that that the number of girls on my IM list that have "wedding planning" up as their away message. Bah. Thank goodness that there are at least a few "how this is made" types of shows on in the afternoon.

It's still too early for homework, that comes this week.

2007-01-15T02:20:24Z

Classes have started and I am currently more excited about the classes that are the least pertinent to my future career. I.E. Periods of Style and Lighting Design. Periods of Style because it's sooo different from anything else that I have to do right now (and because it's not actually death by slides and memorization - I am all about being curious about trends and seeing when and why) and Lighting Design because for my final project I will be assisting the Lighting Designer for The Illusion (our last show of the season) I will be going nuts then, but it will be worth it. It's going to be hard at the beginning for me to remember that structures is on Monday and Wednesday instead of Tuesday Thursday. Friday is Zach attack friday - both true size and shape drafting and stick welding are with him. Technically it's Zach sneak attack Tuesday and Thursday because we were all surprised to find out he's the TA for Lighting Design. Can't handle it. But most of my homework is mobile now, so I can do more of my usual working at coffee shops.

Any time I think of Lighting Design I think of Bridget Kendall and all the hell we went through together in undergrad, and then I remember that I am a loser and no longer have ANY contact information for her. So if anyone knows where Bridget is now drop me a line. I will be forever grateful.

Bought lots of necessary things this weekend, including darts for our sad dart-less dart board AND new sneakers. The sneakers honestly were the coolest purchase of the weekend. I realized that in conjunction with my current attempt to exercise that the last time I bought sneakers was, well, four or so years ago. Yea, well, when all you wear is work boots the few hours you spend in other shoes isn't that important. But now that I am walking to and from campus in them, and am about to start back at the gym something needed to be done about the current situation. I went to fleet feet and had an awesome experience getting fitted. They measure your feet and watch you run in different shoes to determine what is best for you. You put on the shoes and then they tell you to go run around the parking lot. Seriously. The guy helping me was also just awesome and fun to talk to. Not your usual shoe buying experience at all. And the shoes just happen to be Carolina Blue. Makes me chuckle.

Unfortunately, this whole exercise plan means that there were be many more mornings when I greet the world at an egregiously early hour. Tomorrow I will be waking up at 5 am. Yea, I know. The real weekly schedule will be working out at the Ladies fitness center up the street 6:30 am - 7:30 am Tues. and Thurs (because Lighting Design doesn't start 'til 9:30 am) but tomorrow I have to go in a do paper work and tour the gym and such. Since I will have a personal trainer I can't just snooze and roll over. It will be great. I am actually excited. I am realizing that subconsciously I probably wasn't as comfortable as I thought I was in a mixed gender gym. I mean, realistically most everyone is so absorbed in what they are doing they are not noticing anyone else. But now I will probably be one of the more proficient people working on strength training instead of the random girl using the weights.

euphistic19 @ 2007-01-08T22:45:00

2007-01-09T03:45:47Z

One of the Bands keeps playing O Fortuna from Carmina Burana. Quite the choice for a football game. Makes me chuckle.

You know they can't hear you right?

2007-01-09T03:43:52Z

The semester starts again on Wednesday, but you wouldn't know that it was that time of year from the weather. It's been ridiculously warm and despite living on or near the coast for the last six years I can't handle it. The cherry trees are all confused and blooming. It feels like spring which means that classes should be near ended, so there is that false sense of nearing freedom.

All roommates are back now. There has been much watching of sports and yelling at the TV in the past week. My roommates are way more vocal than I am when watching football and/or basketball on the TV. When I am at a game I yell, but I don't feel that same need when at home. I wander in and out or knit or check e-mail while only sort of watching the game.

Been having way more free time than I should recently. Don't worry, it will bite us later. There's nothing to do at work until the next designs come in, so we got a three day weekend this weekend. Finally went and visited Kay despite only living 1.5 hours apart since the beginning of the semester. Had lunch, talked, walked around Old Salem, talked, ate dinner with her friend that knows my dad (an interesting small world moment, but in a good way) Had dinner with Eric and Nikki last night and met their cats. I'm apparently cooler than Nikki's mom because one of the cats only hissed at me once, and not 'til later in the evening after sniffing me and letting me pet her a little. Saw lots of deer, including three just staring at me as I was coming down the road. It's a good thing that I am not surprised when I see wild life on the road.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2007-01-01T06:23:25Z

I head back to Chapel Hill tomorrow and as always despite thoroughly enjoying my break I wish that it was longer. It is now 2007 and while I should be asleep so I can drive in the morning my body is a little messed up from my whacked out break sleep schedule. Hopefully the pouring rain that is happening now will be done for my travels.

After the trauma of the car fuse (which prompted the little gift of a replacement fuse kit in every kid's stocking) the rest of break went swimmingly. Due to getting home earlier than expected I spent more time decorating than I have in years past. More often than not by the time I can get home the living room and tree have been decorated and all things baked and tasty have been created. This year I spent a fair amount of time on the tree, including a sort of failed attempt at putting on the lights. Normally this is dad's job, with mom helping, but this time it was my brother and myself with Mom helping to fix it and then mostly taking over by the end. Artistic christmas lights draper will not be added to my list of skills any time soon. Other goodies about being home was sleeping in and having good food cooked for me.

The liturgical calendar this year ended up as such that Christmas Eve and the 4th Sunday of Advent were the same day. Naturally we were not big fans of going to mass twice on the same day, so we went to Saturday Night Mass for Sunday and then Sunday night 7 p.m. Mass for Christmas. After the Sat mass we had dinner with lunatopaz and her family which was extra nice since we were not able to have Thanksgiving dinner with them like years past. All the food was extra yummy and my sister's fiancé, Ted, got into town in time to join us in a rousing game of Preferences. It's a game where you have to guess the preferences of other players based on how they ordered either items or people or food or activities. The pictures on the cards are amazingly 80s and a lot of the humor of the game simply comes from the randomness of many of the items on the cards. lunatopaz was my girlfriend for the evening since everyone else already came in couple from. It turns out that I am very in tune with my dad.

Christmas eve dinner was home made by Ted and Rebecca with everyone else having a job to do. It's the tradition in his family to do it for Christmas Eve, while it is the tradition to do it for New Years Eve in our family. After Mass I baked and frosted spice cookies with lunatopaz which was amazingly much more involved than you would think. First off, the cookie shapes are wonderfully non traditional Christmas things like lips , palm trees, elephants and butterflies (we made some pine trees and gingerbread like people too). Then you make really bright non traditional colors to frost them with like teal and salmon, completing all necessary details such as buttons, eyes and antenna with sprinkles and such, (or jimmies as she calls them). It was a lot of fun and we talked about all sorts of things while cutting and baking and frosting (while drinking hot chocolate)

Christmas present opening was lovely and everyone seemed to like their things. I got a lovely eclectic mix of things, including some good music, some clothes and more coffee things to add to the collection, namely a French Press. Ted proudly put on all of his clothing gifts (quite a feat but accomplished mostly - the preppy over the shoulder look had to be implemented for the last sweatshirt. Then there was lounging around and food and cookies and such. And more good food since Ted and Rebecca cooked dinner for the time they were in town. Chicken Cordon Blue one night and Personal Meat Loafs another.

Spent two days bra and cocktail dress shopping. One day in Christiansburg with Mom and blueskyline and the next in Roanoke with mom. Day two was more successful due to selection so I now have two cute black cocktail dresses and several bras. I hate bra shopping, but it has to be done. Granted I didn't end up going to the party that originally prompted the need for such a dress, but it means that I now have new things to wear to opening nights

Spent the better part of yesterday and last night with Charlie beginning with breakfast for lunch, hiking up and around Mountain Lake and on part of the AT including an absolutely amazing view out on some poking out rocks, dinner, wandering around the drill field, duck pond and downtown, talking with his mom, step dad and aunt and then sitting up talking and simply enjoying each other's company. He's one of the few people in this world that make me feel totally at ease and no matter how long it has been since we saw each other last it always feels like we just pick up from where we left off. It was perfect.